Be Ready
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
When I was growing up, my parents had bought the four part A Thief in the Night series on VHS. I can’t tell you how many times I would watch those movies. I was fascinated by them, and not just for their bad acting and terrible special effects. There were two main reasons I watched. The first was I wanted to learn about Jesus coming back. The second though was I loved the theme song of the series: I Wish We’d All Been Ready. “Life was filled with guns and war and everyone got trampled on the floor; I wish we’d all been ready. Children died. The days grew cold. A piece of bread could buy a bag of gold.” They don’t write songs like that anymore! I loved that song though. I mean, what child doesn’t like singing a song about the destruction of life as we know it? I would sing it all the time. DC Talk would eventually come out with a version which made it even better.
Though now I would disagree with the theology behind the song (and the movies for that matter), the message of the song was clear. We must be ready for Jesus’s return. And that’s the message Jesus was conveying in the passage we are studying this morning. And what Jesus teaches are four fundamentals of his return.
The first fundamental lesson is that the kingdom of God is unimpressive
The second fundamental lesson is that the kingdom of God will be unmistakable.
The third fundamental lesson will be unexpected.
The fourth is that the kingdom of God will be ungracious.
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed,
nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.
And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them.
For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.
But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building,
but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—
so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back.
Remember Lot’s wife.
Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.
I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left.
There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.”
And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”
The Kingdom of God is Unimpressive
The Kingdom of God is Unimpressive
For the last 150 years or so, it has been a big deal to try and figure out when Jesus would return and set up the kingdom of God on earth. And through the years, various ideas and theories and predictions and books—and the occasional song—has been put out there to help the average Christian figure out all the fine details of Jesus’s return and the consummation of God’s kingdom. But in reality, at this point, we need to only know four fundamental realities about it and the first of those four is that the Kingdom of God is unimpressive.
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed,
nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
The Pharisees were much like modern-day eschatologists. They were trying to figure out when God would set up his kingdom and so they asked Jesus. Perhaps they were genuinely interested or perhaps they were just playing another game of “Gotcha!” but either way, they asked him the question and he answered it.
His answer was simply that they were not going to see it the way they thought they would. It could not be observed. In other words, the stuff they were looking for to give them insight of the coming kingdom was not going to come about. Hence, when one set of theologians would say, “here it is! Here’s the evidence! Here is what we’ve been looking for!” they shouldn’t be trusted. And when another set of theologians argued and said, “No. It’s over there. There’s everything we knew would happen!” they shouldn’t be trusted either. Everyone was looking for something spectacular. But in reality the kingdom of God would be unimpressive.
Now, certainly that is only true as far as it goes. Remember these were the Pharisees with whom he was speaking. They would not see the kingdom as impressive though others might. You see, Jesus said that the kingdom was standing in their midst. It was right there in front of them. Not over here. Not over there. But in their midst. The kingdom was not just a thing; he was a Person: Jesus himself. From his being born in a manger by a Nazarene woman to his baptism in the Jordan River to his eating with tax collectors and sinners, the whole thing was just unimpressive. But it was present.
That’s what people tended to miss then and tend to miss now. The Pharisees asked when the kingdom of God would come and Jesus’s response was that it was already there. They just weren’t looking at reality.
How about us? Are we seeing reality for what it is? Are we still expecting the kingdom to be some type of impressive futuristic fantasy that’s beyond our sight and understanding and grasp? Or are we seeing reality for what it is. The kingdom came when Jesus came and resembles its own King—unimpressive, subtle, but powerful!
Are we seeing the kingdom in our midst and so living as if citizens of it—citizens by God’s grace, strengthened by God’s grace, living by God’s grace—or do we think its not yet here and we just have to do the best we can until it comes?
The Kingdom of God will be Unmistakable
The Kingdom of God will be Unmistakable
Which leads us to our second fundamental lesson. The first is that the kingdom of God is unimpressive, but the second is that it will be unmistakable. Notice the tense of these two fundamentals. The first is present and the second is future. It is unimpressive and it will be unmistakable. This is what we call inaugurated theology, or more commonly known as the “already, not yet” understanding of Scripture. Jesus has inaugurated his kingdom “already” during his first coming, but it is “not yet” consummated in all its glory.
But with the return of Jesus, it will be unmistakable.
And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.
And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them.
For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.
Jesus warned the disciples that he would be gone for quite some time. They would desire to see him again but he would not be there. The King would be away, but just because a king is away from his throne does not mean that the kingdom has ceased to be. Back in 1906, Theodore Roosevelt became the first president of the the United States to leave the nation while in office. He was visiting the building of the Panama Canal. We don’t think anything of a president leaving the States anymore, but then it was a huge deal. But guess what! The United States still existed even though the President was not in the White House. He wasn’t even on the continent.
The disciples would desperately want to see Jesus again and so Jesus warned them before this ever happened not to get caught up in their own longings or grief. When we have such grief or longing, we are ready to believe just about anything. Jesus wouldn’t return secretly. He wouldn’t reveal himself to just one or two people here or there. When he returned it would be like lightning that lights up the entire sky. Everyone will see him and everyone would know it. John would write about the even some sixty years after Jesus made these remarks.
Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
The Kingdom of God will be Unexpected
The Kingdom of God will be Unexpected
And this leads us to the third fundamental lesson of the kingdom of God: it will be unexpected. John said, “Behold, he is coming with the clouds.” Behold! Look! That’s something we say to people who aren’t looking. Jesus will turn when people won’t be looking for him.
But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building,
but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—
so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
In both of these examples, Jesus states the same idea. No one was living expectantly. Noah preached, Lot preached, the angels came, but no one was ready. Life was lived just as always. People were having parties. They were getting married. They went out to dinner and went shopping. They planted gardens and built homes and lives for themselves. “Ob la di; ob la da, life goes on, brah. La la how the life goes on.”
Some would have us to think that things will get as bad as Noah or as bad as Sodom and Gomorrah. But that’s not Jesus’s point. The point was that no one thought anything would happen. They were wrapped up in life. Suddenly the judgment was upon them. The greatest difference is that the judgment that now comes is not temporal, but eternal.
so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Those of us who believe are saved from this judgment. That’s the point of this passage. Be ready. Be looking. Life can’t continue on as normal as if judgment day will never come. We must be ready by placing our faith in Christ and his kingdom work.
Jesus’s generation was not ready. He told the Pharisees that the Kingdom of God in their midst—standing right in front of them and they could not see it. Then turns around and tells his disciples that he must be rejected by this generation—his own generation for whom he had inaugurated his kingdom.
They were not ready. Is our generation? Understand that Jesus does not come back secretly for his church and then publically to judge the world. This is actually a dangerous doctrine that has permeated the church and the world. I say it is dangerous because it puts off the saving of one’s soul for later when that later will never be. If we are one who teaches there will be a secret rapture of the church and then a Tribulation for those left behind, our argument is “You don’t want to be left behind to experience all the bad stuff that will happen.” But what it tells everyone is that, “yeah it’ll be bad, but you’ll still have an opportunity to get saved.” In essence, we give permission to the lost to put off salvation to a time when it’ll be more difficult than now, but not impossible.
Yet in reality, there is no other moment for salvation. When Jesus comes, it will be public. It will be unmistakable, it will be unexpected, and there is no other chance for salvation.
The Kingdom of God will be Ungracious
The Kingdom of God will be Ungracious
This is the point of the last fundamental lesson. The kingdom of God will be ungracious. When Christ returns, there is only judgment to be had.
On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back.
Remember Lot’s wife.
Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.
I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left.
There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.”
And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”
What Jesus is conveying is that there’s no time to look back. This life is gone; it’s over. This world has nothing for us. Just like we have been taught since we were kids, if your house is on fire, you get out immediately. You don’t take anything with you lest you die. There’s no time. Things can be replaced, but life cannot be.
Jesus said, when he returns no one is to go back for anything. We can’t be like Lot’s wife who longed for the home she used to know. That kind of thinking killed her. We cannot be double-minded; we cannot love this world and God. If we seek the attachments of this world we will be lost when he returns. There is no second chance. There’s no grace once he returns. There is only judgment.
The two in bed and the two women grinding at the mill are those who are taken in judgment. Some would say, “No those are the ones taken in the rapture; or those are the one’s taken to heaven.” But that doesn’t make sense with the answer to the disciples’ question.
And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”
One will be taken the other left. Where? Where will they be taken? To “where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” You’ve seen something like this probably a hundred times in life. You’re driving down the highway and you see vultures in the air circling. If you’re walking in the heat of the day, you might even feel a bit concerned. Do they know something you don’t? But the reason we get concerned is because we know that vultures only feed on what is dead. Where do these who are taken go? They go to the place where the dead are judged.
John gave a gruesome image in
Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come, gather for the great supper of God,
to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.”
And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army.
And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.
And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
Are you ready for Jesus to come? There is no time to receive him like the present. As Paul said to the Corinthians
For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
In other words, right now if you call out, he will listen to you. He will help you by saving you. But you must call out.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we finish this section of Luke, let us know that we are ready for Jesus to return and consummate the kingdom of God. The only way we can be ready is to put our faith in him. Jesus, being God in the flesh, came to live in this world. He lived a perfect life; the very life that God requires of us. The very life that we cannot even hope to achieve. But he did for us. He died as if a sinner, though he had never sinned. He did it as a substitute. He received God’s judgment and wrath in our place so we would never have to face it ourselves. We would never be called away to the place where the corpse is and the vulture waits. He rose again to show that death was defeated and that the promise of our right standing before Almighty God is assured.
Do you believe that? If so, then life will be lived in his grace and in his strength. It will be a life of expectancy and longing for his return. It is not a life of fear, but one of expectant hope.
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
It is one thing to know that God loves us. Anyone can make that ascent. Sure God loves me. He loves everyone. But to believe that God loves me is altogether different. But that’s the truth. And if we abide in that love—if we live in that love that God has for us—life is forever different and there is no fear but only hope. As he is, so also are we in this world. He is love and so are we.
Is that you? Are you ready for the kingdom of God to be consummated? Are you ready for Jesus to return?
Prayer
Our heavenly Father,
I pray that we would all be ready. I pray that our generation would not be the one in which Jesus returns only to find that it has no faith. Father, we love this generation. We have sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, aunts and uncle, moms and dads who have yet to turn their faith to the perfect work of Jesus on the cross. They, like the Pharisees, are blind to the impressiveness of King Jesus and his kingdom. Many of them are going over here and over there looking for some type of hope, some type of answer to what ails their souls and are unimpressed by the truth. Open their eyes so that they may see it standing before them and may they cling tightly forevermore.
Push us on to gospel ministry. To speak often of Jesus. To tell of his goodness and mercy. To speak of his kingdom that comes unmistakably and unexpectedly. And may we not fail to tell them that now, today is the day of salvation. Today is the day that you shall be gracious and hear their cry for help. We’re not guaranteed grace tomorrow. Jesus may come at any moment and our time for grace and mercy will be gone. May we know that. May the world know that.
In Jesus’s name. Amen.